Categories

Month: June 2016

I needed to do a night flight to maintain my currency, so I went up Monday night. It’s tough to keep up with night flights in the summer since sunset is so late. It was 9:05pm on Monday, and “night” for pilots doesn’t start until an hour after that. A 10pm takeoff is pretty late for a guy who is normally up at 6:30am day-in and day-out.

Did a few landings at Delaware’s airport and then flew south to circle Columbus once. I wasn’t planning on swinging by the Horseshoe since nothing was going on there, but Approach gave me authority without even asking so I figured why pass up the opportunity?

After that, I took a nice leisurely circuit around the city center and then, with currency fulfilled, returned back to base.

Like this:

Flew over Attica, Ohio the other day returning from the lake. It’s got a special place in my heart for being one of the most ruthless speed traps for traffic between Columbus and Lake Erie. Feels good to swing by at a blistering 105 knots.

But it’s a nice looking small town from about 2,000 feet I wish I was able to get a better picture but the weather just wasn’t that great. I’m sure I’ll get another chance because I don’t intend to drive that route ever again if at all possible.

Like this:

Flew to Port Clinton today for a $100 dollar hamburger. It’s nice to fly over something besides farmland so I took the opportunity to do a quick tour around the perimeter of Catawba Island. Weather was possibly impeding my route back to Columbus so I had to make it a quicker tour than I’d normally have liked.

Larger versions of all of these images are in the gallery at the bottom of the post.

I’ve taken a couple passes by the Catawba Island Club a few months ago but few of the boats were in the water. Now the slips are full. I was able to get two half-decent shots. The facilities there are simply gorgeous although I wish I could have seen the sailors out with sails up. I believe there was supposed to be a race today but I either missed it or else it was cancelled due to inclement weather.

Then as I circled around the point, here’s a great shot of the ferry dock at the north end of Catawba Island. Mouse Island is the small wooded island right off the point, and South Bass Island, home of the famous Put-In-Bay is the next island out much further in the distance.

Coming around to the east side of Catawba Island is the West Harbor. This is sliiiiightly larger than the harbor at the CIC above and used for all sorts of commercial fishing. If you want to charter a fishing trip from some Lake Erie walleye, here’s the place to do it.

Leaving the island, I crossed over this bay. It is connected to the West Harbor and it doesn’t look like the East Harbor and I can’t find a name for it, so if any of you locals know what this body of water is, I sure would like an answer in the comments.

Antrim Lake is a small lake along the Olentangy River to the north of Columbus. There is an improved path that loops around the lake and it is a popular spot for joggers, dog walkers, and stroller-pushers.

There’s even a “secret” unimproved dirt path that runs in a wider loop around the lake if you want to let your dog off-leash to really run around or just want to avoid the more crowded regular loop.

Like this:

This was a picture I took on the way back from my private pilot checkride today. What’s that mean? It means I’m officially a licensed pilot. Not a student pilot with some solo privileges. For any non-pilots reading this, you probably don’t care about the checkride so this is a shot of Alum Creek from the north. You’re looking at the creek part of Alum Creek close to me, and also the lake part of Alum Creek off further in the distance which most people in Columbus are more familiar with.

In the gallery of photos below, I also have a picture of a rainstorm as I skirted around it as well as a few more shots of Alum Creek (lake-part).

For any pilots reading this, the checkride was very much the most nervous test-taking environment since I took the Bar Exam. My examiner kept things relatively conversational and easy-going, but honestly I don’t think my muscles have been so tight since the first time I solo-landed an airplane.

We had to dodge a little weather and I had to dodge a bit on the way home, so here’s a few pictures of the rain cloud and the only good shot I could get between the way up and the way back.